Knowledge management system

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present invention address the above needs and/or achieve other advantages by providing a method, system, computer program product, or a combination of the foregoing for creating a knowledge management system for production support that is standardized and centralized across the channels and sub-channels in an organization. The knowledge management system receives information relating to incidents from databases in the organization. The knowledge management system displays via a user interface at least the following information related to at least one incident, the current status of the incident, the recovery guidelines for effecting resolution of the incident, and scoring values associated with the incident. The knowledge management system also stores and displays historical information, contact information, incident reports, and outstanding incident tickets associated with the incident, as well as process maps or flowcharts for systems, applications, and customer views, and an academy for training associates.

This invention relates generally to the field of knowledge management,and more particularly embodiments of the invention relate to systems,methods, and computer program products for providing a comprehensivesystem for production support information.

BACKGROUND

Businesses store applications, information, and data across variouslines of business (“LOB”) in a decentralized fashion. Typically,specific departments within each LOB are responsible for compiling,sorting, storing, and accessing the knowledge of the associates workingwithin each department in the most effective way they see fit, if it isdone at all. The applications, information, and data are neither storedin central locations, nor are searchable or usable for knowledgetransfer and general education between departments and LOBs.Furthermore, when production incidents occur, the proper processes andfixes are not within the reach of each of the associates assigned tosupport the production incidents. Therefore, when an associate has aquestion outside of his/her department's own knowledge base, theassociate makes inquires through calls or e-mails to a business's owncall center or other support system, in order to find the appropriateanswer or contact reference. Inquires are typically forwarded on to agroup with the responsibility of escalating them to the appropriatebusiness team. Subject matter experts can also be pulled into theinquire in order to explain the system architecture, and upstream anddownstream system and customer impacts. When the incidents relate tosmall issues, the personnel necessary to troubleshoot and fix the issuemay only be tied up for a short period of time, however this time couldbe avoided with a more efficient system. When the incidents aresignificant, the process can take weeks to resolve and involve personnelbeing sent on-site or communicating on the phone with associates for aconsiderable amount of time in order to resolve the incidents. This timeintensive process removes key associates from their day-to-dayresponsibilities on a long term basis.

Each time an incident is escalated to a higher support level it costsvaluable time and negatively impacts a business's customers. Typicalknowledge management systems are personally based, in that they aredependent upon the knowledge levels of certain associates in variousgroups. Therefore, contacting the specific associates whenever anincident occurs is inefficient and far from a best practice. Employeesusing these systems respond reactively to any incidents and pullassociates in a number of groups away from their normal roles, whichtranslates into increased costs.

Furthermore, when audit reviews take place within a business, asignificant manual undertaking must occur to collect the data andorganize it in a meaningful way. This data collection and organizationis followed by lengthy face-to-face meetings to review and analyzeindividual data in detail. Audit teams must do this on a LOB-by-LOB anddepartment-by-department basis since most LOBs and departments organizeand store their data and documents in different manners. Thus, itbecomes particularly expensive and time consuming to audit differentdepartments within an organization if the measuring metrics andprocesses are organized in a decentralized manner and are notstandardized across the business. This problem increases exponentiallyas the size of the business increases.

There is no central location to house all of a business' critical datafor the purpose of system documentation, statistical and other analyses,improving associate skill levels and education, etc. The decentralizedapproach may duplicate the efforts of associates, since they are notaware that process maps, procedures, data analysis, etc., may havealready been developed independently by other associates. Without havingthe ability to first search in a centralized location for information,associates never know if their efforts are actually a waste of time andcould be put to better use on a different issue.

Currently there is no system under which a business can store, generate,distribute, score, and track all of the knowledge generated by theassociates of a business through one integrated system in a seamlessmanner.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present invention address the above needs and/orachieve other advantages by providing a method, system, computer programproduct, or a combination of the foregoing for creating a knowledgemanagement system for production support that is standardized andcentralized across the channels and sub-channels in an organization.

One embodiment of the invention is a knowledge management system for usewith tracking and resolving incidents occurring in a banking systemcomprising a user interface, a communication device, a memory device, acomputer-readable medium, and a processor. The communication device isconfigured to send and receive information. The memory device isconfigured to store information. The computer-readable medium hascomputer-readable instructions embodied therein. The processor isoperatively coupled to the user interface, the communication device, thememory device, and the computer-readable medium. The processor isconfigured to execute the computer-readable instructions to receiveinformation relating to one or more incidents from one or moredatabases. The processor is also configured to display via the userinterface information related to at least one incident, including thecurrent status of the incident, the recovery guidelines for effectingresolution of the incident, and scoring values associated with theincident.

One embodiment of the invention is a knowledge management system for usewith tracking and resolving incidents occurring in a business comprisinga user interface, a communication device, a memory device, acomputer-readable medium, and a processor. The communication device isconfigured to send and receive information. The memory device isconfigured to store information. The computer-readable medium hascomputer-readable instructions embodied therein. The processor isoperatively coupled to the user interface, the communication device, thememory device, and the computer-readable medium. The processor isconfigured to execute the computer-readable instructions to receiveinformation relating to one or more incidents from one or moredatabases. The processor is also configured to execute thecomputer-readable instructions to display via the user interfaceinformation related to at least one incident, including the currentstatus of the incident, and scoring values associated with the incident.

In further accord with an embodiment of the invention, the processor isoperable to execute computer-readable instructions stored in thecomputer-readable medium to store and display tracking informationassociated with the incident.

In another embodiment of the invention, the processor is operable toexecute computer-readable instructions stored in the computer-readablemedium to store and display historical information associated with theincident.

In yet another embodiment of the invention, the processor is operable toexecute computer-readable instructions stored in the computer-readablemedium to store and display recovery guidelines associated with theincident.

In another embodiment of the invention, the processor is operable toexecute computer-readable instructions stored in the computer-readablemedium to store and display a process map or flowchart.

In another embodiment of the invention, the processor is operable toexecute computer-readable instructions stored in the computer-readablemedium to store and display contact information of individualsassociated with the incident.

In further accord with an embodiment of the invention, the processor isoperable to execute computer-readable instructions stored in thecomputer-readable medium to cooperate with said communication device tofacilitate communication between a user of the knowledge managementsystem and other individuals associated with the incident.

In another embodiment of the invention, the processor is operable toexecute computer-readable instructions stored in the computer-readablemedium to display learning modules to a user for purposes of training.

In yet another embodiment of the invention, the processor is operable toexecute computer-readable instructions stored in the computer-readablemedium to provide various displays with different levels of informationdetail related to an incident.

In another embodiment of the invention, the processor is operable toexecute computer-readable instructions stored in the computer-readablemedium to display a dashboard displaying at least tracking and scoringfor the incident.

In yet another embodiment of the invention, the processor is operable toexecute computer-readable instructions stored in the computer-readablemedium to receive and display information regarding performance of oneor more channels of business regarding resolutions of incidents relatingto the channel.

In another embodiment of the invention, the processor is operable toexecute computer-readable instructions stored in the computer-readablemedium to receive and display information regarding performance of oneor more applications relating to the incident, or channel or sub-channelof business associated with the incident.

In further accord with an embodiment of the invention the processor isoperable to execute computer-readable instructions stored in thecomputer-readable medium to receive information regarding performance ofone or more channels of business regarding resolutions of incidentsrelating to the channel. The processor is also operable to executecomputer-readable instructions stored in the computer-readable medium togenerate one or more scoring values associated with the channel'sperformance relative to the incident and display the scoring values.

In another embodiment of the invention, the processor is operable toexecute computer-readable instructions stored in the computer-readablemedium to store and display information associated with the incidentwhere the incident is related to operations of a financial institution.

One embodiment of the invention is a computer program product for aknowledge management system. The computer program product comprises atleast one computer-readable medium having computer-readable program codeportions embodied therein. The computer-readable program code portionscomprise an executable portion configured for receiving, through the useof a processor, information relating to one or more incidents from oneor more databases, wherein the processor is operatively coupled to theone or more databases, a user interface, a communication device, amemory device, and the computer-readable program code. Thecomputer-readable program code portions also comprise an executableportion configured for displaying via the user interface informationrelated to at least one incident, including the current status of theincident, recovery guidelines for effecting resolution of the incident,and scoring values associated with the incident.

One embodiment of the invention is a computer program product for aknowledge management system. The computer program product comprises atleast one computer-readable medium having computer-readable program codeportions embodied therein. The computer-readable program code portionscomprise an executable portion configured for receiving, through the useof a processor, information relating to one or more incidents from oneor more databases, wherein the processor is operatively coupled to theone or more databases, a user interface, a communication device, amemory device, and the computer-readable program code. Thecomputer-readable program code portions also comprise an executableportion configured for displaying via the user interface informationrelated to at least one incident, including the current status of theincident, and scoring values associated with the incident.

In further accord with an embodiment of the invention, the computerprogram product comprises an executable portion configured fordisplaying, via the user interface, tracking information associated withthe incident.

In another embodiment of the invention, the computer program productcomprises an executable portion configured for displaying, via the userinterface, historical information associated with the incident.

In yet another embodiment of the invention, the computer program productcomprises an executable portion configured for displaying, via the userinterface, recovery guidelines associated with the incident.

In another embodiment of the invention, the computer program productcomprises an executable portion configured for displaying, via the userinterface, a process map or flowchart.

In yet another embodiment of the invention, the computer program productcomprises an executable portion configured for displaying, via the userinterface, contact information of individuals associated with theincident.

In further accord with an embodiment of the invention, the computerprogram product comprises an executable portion configured forfacilitating, through the use of the communication device, communicationbetween a user of the knowledge management system and other individualsassociated with the incident.

In another embodiment of the invention, the computer program productcomprises an executable portion configured for displaying, via the userinterface, learning modules to a user for purposes of training.

In yet another embodiment of the invention, the computer program productcomprises an executable portion configured for providing, through theuse of the processor, various displays with different levels ofinformation detail related to an incident.

In another embodiment of the invention, the computer program productcomprises an executable portion configured for displaying, via the userinterface, a dashboard displaying at least tracking and scoring for theincident.

In yet another embodiment of the invention, the computer program productcomprises an executable portion configured for displaying, via the userinterface, information regarding performance of one or more channels ofbusiness regarding resolutions of incidents relating to the channel.

In further accord with an embodiment of the invention, the computerprogram product comprises an executable portion configured fordisplaying, via the user interface, information regarding performance ofone or more applications relating to the incident, or channel orsub-channel of business associated with the incident.

In another embodiment of the invention, the computer program productcomprises an executable portion configured for receiving, through theuse of the processor, information regarding performance of one or morechannels of business regarding resolutions of incidents relating to thechannel. The computer program product also comprises an executableportion configured for generating, through the use of the processor, oneor more scoring values associated with the channel's performancerelative to the incident. The computer program product also comprises anexecutable portion configured for displaying, via the user interface,the scoring values.

In yet another embodiment of the invention, the computer program productcomprises an executable portion configured for displaying, via the userinterface, information associated with the incident where the incidentis related to operations of a financial institution.

The features, functions, and advantages that have been discussed may beachieved independently in various embodiments of the present inventionor may be combined in yet other embodiments, further details of whichcan be seen with reference to the following description and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

Having thus described embodiments of the invention in general terms,reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are notnecessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:

FIG. 1 provides an overview of the interaction between the knowledgemanagement system and the channels within a business, in accordance withan embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 provides a system diagram illustrating the interaction of thesystems in the knowledge management system, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 provides a home page for the knowledge management systemillustrating an overview of the incidents within production support, inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 a provides a process flow for the dashboard system of theknowledge management system, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 4 b provides a dashboard for the knowledge management systemillustrating a channel summary of the incidents within productionsupport, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 5 provides another dashboard for the knowledge management systemillustrating a sub-channel summary of the incidents within productionsupport, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 6 provides another dashboard for the knowledge management systemillustrating an incident level summary of the incidents withinproduction support, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 7 provides another dashboard for the knowledge management systemillustrating an incident summary of a specific incident withinproduction support, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 8 provides a playbook interface for the knowledge management systemillustrating the searching and display functions for incident recoveryprocesses for responding to specific incidents, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 9 provides a knowledgebase interface for the knowledge managementsystem illustrating the searching and display functions for the resolvedincident tickets, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 10 provides a process map interface for the knowledge managementsystem illustrating the searching and display functions for thephysical, logical, and transactional process maps, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 11 provides a process map display for the knowledge managementsystem illustrating an example of a physical, logical, or transactionalprocess map, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 12 provides a flow chart display for the knowledge managementsystem illustrating an example of a flow chart from a customerperspective, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 13 a provides a process flow for the operational reliability indexsystem of the knowledge management system, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 13 b provides a operational reliability index home page for theknowledge management system illustrating the reliability scores for eachchannel, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 14 a provides an operational reliability index scoring interfacefor the knowledge management system illustrating the reliability scoresfor each sub-channel, application, and category within a channel, inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 14 b provides an operational reliability index scoring template forthe knowledge management system illustrating the scoring metrics for twocategories, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 14 c provides another operational reliability index scoringtemplate for the knowledge management system illustrating the scoringmetrics for two categories, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 14 d provides another operational reliability index scoringtemplate for the knowledge management system illustrating the scoringmetrics for two categories, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 14 e provides another operational reliability index scoringtemplate for the knowledge management system illustrating the scoringmetrics for two categories, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 15 provides a contacts interface for the knowledge managementsystem illustrating the searching and display interface for thehierarchy and contacts related to one section of the knowledgemanagement system, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 16 provides an incident report request interface for the knowledgemanagement system illustrating a request form for reporting theincidents in the system, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 17 provides an incident report for the knowledge management systemillustrating a report summary of a particular incident, in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 18 provides a process flow for the knowledge management systemillustrating the incident notification process flow, in accordance withan embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 19 provides an incident home page for the knowledge managementsystem illustrating the list of open incidents, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 20 provides part of an incident communication interface for theknowledge management system illustrating part of the information locatedwithin an incident ticket, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 21 provides another part of the incident communication interfacefor the knowledge management system illustrating another part of theinformation located within an incident ticket, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 22 provides another part of the incident communication interfacefor the knowledge management system illustrating another part of theinformation located within an incident ticket, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 23 provides another part of the incident communication interfacefor the knowledge management system illustrating another part of theinformation located within an incident ticket, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 24 provides another part of the incident communication interfacefor the knowledge management system illustrating another part of theinformation located within an incident ticket, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 25 provides another part of the incident communication interfacefor the knowledge management system illustrating another part of theinformation located within an incident ticket, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 26 provides a process flow for the knowledge management systemillustrating the incident response process flow, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 27 provides an academy home page interface for the knowledgemanagement system illustrating the certification and modules availableto the user, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 28 provides an expanded academy home page interface for theknowledge management system illustrating the certification and modulesavailable to the user, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 29 provides an academy module interface for the knowledgemanagement system illustrating the module display for a user, inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 30 provides a process flow for the academy system of the knowledgemanagement system, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described more fullyhereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some,but not all, embodiments of the invention are shown. Indeed, theinvention may be embodied in many different forms and should not beconstrued as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, theseembodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicablelegal requirements. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.Although the embodiments of the invention described herein are generallydescribed as involving a “bank,” one of ordinary skill in the art willappreciate that other embodiments of the invention may involve otherbusinesses or financial institutions that take the place of or work inconjunction with the bank to perform one or more of the processes orsteps described herein as being performed by a bank. Other embodimentsof the invention may involve other businesses outside of the financialindustry altogether.

As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art in view of thisdisclosure, the present invention may be embodied as a method or anapparatus (system, computer program product, device, etc.), or acombination of the foregoing. Accordingly, embodiments of the presentinvention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, anentirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software,micro-code, etc.), or an embodiment combining software and hardwareaspects that may generally be referred to herein as a “system.”Furthermore, embodiments of the present invention may take the form of acomputer program product comprising a computer-usable storage mediumhaving computer-usable program code/computer-readable instructionsembodied in the medium.

Any suitable computer-usable or computer-readable medium may beutilized. The computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be, forexample but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical,electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, ordevice. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of thecomputer-readable medium would include the following: an electricalconnection having one or more wires; or a tangible storage medium suchas a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory(RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-onlymemory (EPROM or Flash memory), a compact disc read-only memory(CD-ROM), or other tangible optical or magnetic storage device.

Computer program code/computer-readable instructions for carrying outoperations of the present invention may be written in an objectoriented, scripted or unscripted programming language such as Java,Perl, Smalltalk, C++ or the like. However, the computer programcode/computer-readable instructions for carrying out operations of theinvention may also be written in conventional procedural programminglanguages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programminglanguages.

Embodiments of the present invention are described below with referenceto flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods or apparatus(systems, computer program products, devices, etc.). It will beunderstood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or blockdiagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrationsand/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer programinstructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a particularmachine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor ofthe computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, createmechanisms for implementing the functions/acts specified in theflowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in acomputer-readable memory that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instructions, whichimplement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions/acts specified inthe flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks. Alternatively,computer program implemented steps or acts may be combined with operatoror human implemented steps or acts in order to carry out an embodimentof the invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates the knowledge management system 1, in accordance withan embodiment of the invention. The knowledge management system 1 is asystem configured to manage knowledge for all, or at least a plurality,of the channels across a bank and the sub-channels within thosechannels. In the illustrated embodiment, the channels include, forexample, an e-commerce channel 2, a banking center technology (“BCT”)channel 3, an automated teller machine (ATM) channel 4, a mortage, homeequity, and insurance technology (“MHEIT”) channel 5, a card serviceschannel 6, a deposits contact center (“DCC”) channel 7, as well as otheradditional channels 8. However, in other embodiments of the invention,the knowledge management system 1 can provide the same or similarsupport for different LOBs, departments, or channels across any type ofbusiness.

FIG. 2 provides a system diagram 100 illustrating the interaction of thesystems in the knowledge management system 1, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention. As illustrated in FIG. 2, a user computersystem 110 is operatively coupled, via a network 102, to a knowledgemanagement server 120, one or more bank databases 130, and one or morebank computer systems 140. In this way, a user 104 of the user computersystem 110 can receive electronic information from the knowledgemanagement server 120, bank databases 130, and the bank computer systems140. The network 102 may be a global area network (GAN), such as theInternet, a wide area network (WAN), a local area network (LAN), or anyother type of network or combination of networks. The network 104 mayprovide for wireline, wireless, or a combination of wireline andwireless communication between devices in the network.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the user computer system 110 generallycomprises a communication device 111, a processing device 112, and amemory device 113. As used herein, the term “processing device”generally includes circuitry used for implementing the communicationand/or logic functions of a particular system. For example, a processingdevice may include a digital signal processor device, a microprocessordevice, and various analog-to-digital converters, digital-to-analogconverters, and other support circuits and/or combinations of theforegoing. Control and signal processing functions of the system areallocated between these processing devices according to their respectivecapabilities. The processing device may include functionality to operateone or more software programs based on computer-readable instructionsthereof, which may be stored in a memory device 113.

The processing device 112 of the user computer system 110 is operativelycoupled to the communication device 111 and the memory device 113. Theprocessing device 112 uses the communication device 111 to communicatewith the knowledge management server 120, bank databases 130, and thebank computer systems 140 over the network 102. As such, thecommunication device 111 generally comprises a modem, server, or otherdevice for communicating with other devices on the network 102, and adisplay, mouse, keyboard, microphone, and/or speakers for communicatingwith one or more users 104. As further illustrated in FIG. 1, the usercomputer system 110 includes computer-readable instructions 114 storedin the memory device 113, which include the computer-readableinstructions 114 of a web browser 115 or other similar application thatallows the user computer system 110 to communicate with one or moreother devices on the network 102. The web browser 115 allows the user104 to access the knowledge management application 125 in the knowledgemanagement server 120. The knowledge management application 125 gathersinformation representing the knowledge of the associates across all ofthe channels into one application and stores the information for, amongother things, resolving production incident problems that occur withinthe various channels. Users 104, who are often bank employees, use theknowledge management application 125 as their go to source for thelocation of all business related information references, as is discussedin greater detail below.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the knowledge management server 120 generallycomprises a communication device 121, a processing device 122, and amemory device 123. The processing device 122 is operatively coupled tothe communication device 121 and the memory device 123. The processingdevice 122 uses the communication device 121 to communicate with theuser computer system 110, the bank databases 130, and the bank computersystems 140 over the network 102. As such, the communication device 121generally comprises a modem, server, or other device for communicatingwith other devices on the network 102. As further illustrated in FIG. 2,the knowledge management server 120 includes computer-readableinstructions 124 stored in the memory device 123, which include thecomputer-readable instructions 124 of the knowledge managementapplication 125. Although FIG. 2 illustrates the knowledge managementserver 120 as one system, it is important to note that there can be oneor multiple systems, each with similar components that handlecollecting, storing, and distributing the information for the knowledgemanagement system 1.

The bank databases 130 generally comprise a communication device 131, aprocessing device 132, and a memory device 133. The processing device132 is operatively coupled to the communication device 131 and thememory device 133. The processing device 132 uses the communicationdevice 131 to communicate with the user computer system 110, theknowledge management server 120, and the bank computer systems 140 overthe network 102. As such, the communication device 131 generallycomprises a modem, server, or other device(s) for communicating withother devices on the network 102. As further illustrated in FIG. 2, thebank databases 130 contain computer-readable program instructions 134stored in the memory device 133, which includes the computer-readableinstructions 134 of data storage applications 135. The data storageapplications 135 are used to capture and store information from thevarious bank computer systems 140, and knowledge management server 120,for the knowledge management application 125. For example, in oneembodiment, the bank databases 130 store the data related to theplaybooks, knowledgebases, maps, flows, operational reliability indexes,contacts, reports, incident communication interfaces, and academies ofthe knowledge management system 1, which are all discussed in detailbelow. Although FIG. 2 illustrates the bank databases 130 as one system,it is important to note that there can be one or multiple databases,each with similar components that handle capturing, storing, and/ordistributing the information for the knowledge management system 1.

The bank computer systems 140 generally comprise a communication device141, a processing device 142, and a memory device 143. The processingdevice 142 is operatively coupled to the communication device 141 andthe memory device 143. The processing device 142 uses the communicationdevice 141 to communicate with the user computer system 110, theknowledge management server 120, and the bank databases 130 over thenetwork 102. As such, the communication device 141 generally comprises amodem, server, or other device(s) for communicating with other deviceson the network 102, and a display, mouse, keyboard, microphone, and/orspeakers for communicating with one or more users 104. As furtherillustrated in FIG. 1, the bank computer systems 140 containcomputer-readable program instructions 144 stored in the memory device143, which includes the computer-readable instructions 144 for bankapplications 145. The bank applications 145 are used, in part, tocapture the necessary information for the knowledge managementapplication 125 along with providing support for other bank systems.Although FIG. 2 illustrates the bank computer systems 140 as one system,it is important to note that there can be one or multiple systems, eachwith similar components that handle capturing and distributing theinformation for the knowledge management system 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates the knowledge management application home page 50.This is the page that, in one embodiment of the invention, a user 104 isbrought to when signing on, either automatically or manually, to theknowledge management system 1. The knowledge management application homepage 50 has tabs for the various applications within the knowledgemanagement system 1. The knowledge management home page 50 contains tabsfor the playbooks 100, the knowledgebase 200, the maps 300, the flows400, the dashboards 500, the operational reliability index (“ORI”) 600,the contacts 700, the reports 750, the incident communication interface(“ICI”) 800, and the academy 900 sections. The knowledge managementapplication 125 is used by all of the production support teams, as wellas other employees with access, in order to monitor, troubleshoot, andfix any production incidents, implement new production applications, andstore all of the knowledge related to production support.

In one embodiment of the invention, the knowledge management system 1can be used to track incidents that occur within the bank. Incidents areevents that occur within the bank systems and applications that areoutside the normal operating procedures. The incidents can lead tofailed customer interactions (“FCIs”) if the customer is affected by theincident at the time of the incident or at a later point in time.Incidents can also lead to degraded customer interactions (“DCI”),people hours lost (“PHL”), and agents minutes lost (“AML”) for eachincident. The knowledge management system 1 through the knowledgemanagement application 125 tracks all of these metrics for incidenttroubleshooting and analysis of the bank computer systems 140 and bankapplications 145.

Traditionally, when incidents would occur, details of the incidents werestored and employees reviewed the incidents on an as demanded basis.Furthermore, system information related to the incidents and accuratecontact groups were not established or maintained in a centralizedlocation. Therefore, incidents were reviewed when employees would get tothe next incident in the queue, or when management pushed for resolutionof a particular incident, and employees would not know what processowners to contact to resolve the incidents. This method of tracking andresolution takes longer than necessary to review the impacts of theincidents and to engage the appropriate resources to resolve theincidents. Such a system would allow for many FCIs that occurred for thesame reasons over and over again.

Embodiments of the knowledge management system 1 were designed, in part,with the goal of reducing the FCIs. In general, the number and durationof incidents corresponds directly to the number of FCIs. As such,embodiments of the knowledge management system 1 focus on reducing thenumber and duration of incidents, which in turn reduces the negativeimpact to customers.

The incidents can be assigned different levels of severity in order toorganize the incidents by levels of priority or other categories. In oneembodiment, the incidents are organized into three severity levels asthe incidents occur in the bank computer systems 140. Severity one (1)incidents are high impact significant events that cause full disruptionof service or outages to customers and/or associates. These types ofincidents represent the highest rating. Typically there are noworkarounds in severity one (1) incidents, and they are addressedimmediately to prevent further disruption of service or outages tocustomers and/or associates. Severity two (2) incidents are mediumimpact events that cause partial disruption of service or outages tocustomer and/or associates. Typically a workaround or process change isavailable for these events, which may be utilized by the bank to preventfurther disruption of service or outages for the time being until apermanent fix is implemented. Severity three (3) incidents are lowimpact or non-widespread events that have minimal impact to customersand/or associates. These types of events are fixed by the bank on an asneeded basis. In some embodiments of the invention only severity one (1)and two (2) incidents are tracked by the knowledge management system 1.

FIG. 4 a illustrates a dashboard process flow 1500 used by the knowledgemanagement system 1 to track and display the incidents that occur at thebank on and through the dashboards 500. As illustrated by block 1502,the knowledge management application 125 receives, by either pulling orbeing pushed, information related to the incidents that occur throughoutthe various bank computer systems 140 and associated bank applications145 from the bank computer systems 140, as the incidents occur.Thereafter, as illustrated by block 1504 in FIG. 4 a, the knowledgemanagement application 125 organizes the incidents by status,description, start-date, end-date, duration, severity level, channelimpacted (i.e. e-commerce 2, BCT 3, ATM 4, etc.), sub-channel impacted(i.e. online banking, dot com, small business, etc.), failed customerinteraction, etc. and stores the data on the bank databases 130 foranalysis by the user 104. As illustrated by block 1506, the knowledgemanagement application 125 communicates with the user computer systems110 for displaying the data related to the incidents on an overall,channel, sub-channel, and individual incident level through the use ofthe dashboards 500. As illustrated by block 1508, the user 104 utilizesthe web browser 115 or similar application, to access the knowledgemanagement application 125 in order to review and analyze the incidentsoccurring at the bank on an overall, channel, sub-channel, andindividual incident level though the dashboards 500.

The incident information gathered and displayed by the knowledgemanagement system 1 is displayed in various dashboards, illustrated inFIGS. 3, and 4 b through 7. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the knowledgemanagement application home page 50 provides data related to trackingthe number of incidents that are currently open in the various channellevels. For each channel the knowledge management application home page50 displays a current incident status section 60 and a daily performancesection 70. The current incident status section 60 displays gauges 62illustrating, in some embodiments, the number of open severity level one(1) ticket incidents 64 and the number of severity level two (2) ticketincidents 66. In one embodiment, the gauges 62 display a reading in thegreen, yellow, or red for illustrating the general status level for allof the incidents in each channel.

A user 104 of the knowledge management application 125, can select thedetach button 52 and the current incident status box 60 remains as thetop level view on the user's screen as the user 104 navigates throughthe rest of the knowledge management application 125.

The knowledge management application home page 50 is a tool for uppermanagement to see the overall health of the systems by providing anoverview of the data related to severity one (1) and severity two (2)failed customer incidents at the channel level.

The daily performance section 70 of the knowledge management application125, in some embodiments, illustrates the total number of incidents 72that have occurred thusfar in a day for each channel in increments ofone thousand (K). The daily performance section 70 also gives a generaloverview on a scale 74 providing the user 104 a visual display of thenumber of incidents that are normal (in the green) or that are abnormal(in the red). The gauges 62 and scales 74 are used by employees,especially executives, to track on a high level the number of ongoingincidents and the response of the production support teams. If there isa particular channel showing a high level of incidents a user 104 candrill down into additional data analysis tools to troubleshoot and trackwhat factors are causing the incidents.

A user 104 navigates to additional tools in the knowledge managementapplication 125 by selecting the dashboard 500 tab. As illustrated inFIG. 4 b, selecting the dashboard 500 tab presents a dashboard 500 that,like the home page 50, displays the daily performance section 70 andincludes the total number of incidents 72 and the scale 74 illustratingif the number of incidents is normal or abnormal. However, the dashboard500 also illustrates a channel status section 502. The channel statussection 502 provides a view of the impact of the incidents across eachchannel in a number of charts. The user 104 may view the separatechannel information by selecting a channel name link or icon in thedaily performance section 70. For example, FIG. 4 b illustrates thecharts related to the e-commerce channel 2. The channel status section502 illustrates the response and restoral chart 510, the FCI intensitychart 512, the root cause chart 514, and the FCI ratio chart 516 for thee-commerce channel 2. The response and restoral chart 510 indicates theaverage time it is taking production support to resolve any severitylevel one (1) or severity level two (2) incidents for a particular day.The FCI intensity chart 512 illustrates the number of incidents thatwere not fixed within the proper response time over a period of severalweeks, days, or hours. The root cause chart 514 is a pie chartillustrating the root causes of the incidents as a percentage of variouschanges, such as a production release change, a business as usual(“BAU”) change, a BAU failure, an unapproved change, or a miscellaneouschange. Finally, the FCI ratio chart 516 illustrates the percentage ofFCIs for each channel in relation to the other channels within the bank.

A user 104 can drill-down to view the incidents associated with specificsub-channels of each channel, by selecting (double-clicking) a link oricon for a channels in the daily performance section 70. For example,FIG. 5 illustrates a view of the incidents in the sub-channels of thee-commerce channel 2, such as the online banking 520, dotcom 522, andsmall business 524 sub-channels. The incidents are displayed for eachsub-channel in the channel view section 503, in much the same way asthey were displayed for the channel level in the daily performancesection 70 of FIG. 4 b. The incident summaries for each of thesesub-channels are displayed in the sub-channel status section 504, asillustrated in FIG. 5. The sub-channel status section 504 displays thesame charts and information that were displayed in the channel section502 of FIG. 4 b, but the charts show the break down of the incidents foreach sub-channel when the user 104 selects the associated sub-channelname or icon in the channel view 503.

If a user 104 wants to examine a particular incident within any of thesub-channels, the user 104 drills-down in the dashboards 500 to themanager on duty (“MOD”) incident list 530 illustrated in FIG. 6, by, forexample, selecting (double-clicking) the sub-channel name or icon in thedashboard 500 illustrated in FIG. 5. The MOD, in one embodiment, is themanager that is responsible for the eventual resolution of incidents ina particular channel, sub-channel, or application level at the bank. TheMOD incident list 530 has an incident status section 540 and a customerlogin volume 532. The incident status section 540 lists the incidentticket number 541, the status 542, the description 543 of the incident,the start date 544, the end date 545, the duration 546, the severity547, the channel impacted 548, and the FCI 550, DCI 551, PHL 553, andAML 554 for each incident. This dashboard allows the user 104 to examineeach unresolved incident in the system and check the status of eachincident. As illustrated in FIG. 6, a user 104 can view the incidents bymonth, week, and day, as well as change the number of incidents viewedat one time on the page.

The customer login view 532 illustrated in FIG. 6, allows the user toview the number of customers who have logged into the related channels,sub-channels, and applications at the bank. For example, the customerlogin view 532 illustrated in FIG. 6, provides the number of customerswho have logged into the online banking sub-channel of the e-commercechannel 2. The chart provides a general measurement of the number ofcustomer to logged into a channel, sub-channel, or application so it canbe compared against the amount of incidents that have occurred in thatchannel, sub-channel, or application. In many cases the number ofincidents is proportional to the number of customer logins, but that isnot always the case. The customer login view 532 simply provides anothertool in helping to track and troubleshoot any incidents that occur atthe bank.

The dashboard 500 also allows the user 104 to view the specifics abouteach individual incident, as illustrated in FIG. 7. The user 104 mayselect the incident ticket number 541 in the MOD incident list 530 toview the detail report 560. The detail report 560 contains a summary ofimportant information contained in the incident ticket, which isdiscussed in detail below. The detail report 560 has four sections, thegeneral information section 562, the causal information section 564, theimpact information section 570, and the summary information section 580.The general information section 562 lists the description, start date,end date, duration, root cause owner, incident ticket number, problemticket number, severity, did the resolution meet the service levelagreement, the related playbook, and the time and date of the lastupdate. The casual information section 564 lists where the failureoccurred, what event caused the failure, and what issues compounded theimpact of the failure. The impact information section 570 includes theimpacted channel 548, the impacted technical executive 572, the impactedsub-channel 573, the geographic location 574, the FCI 550, the DCI 551,the PHL 552, and the AML 553. The summary information section 580includes a summary of the restoral, the cause, and the resolution of theincident, as it currently stands. The number of fields completed in thedetail report 560 are dependent on how difficult it is to resolve theincident, how far along the incident stands within the productionsupport process, and how much detail has been added to the incidentticket, as is discussed in further detail with the ICI section 800.

The detail report 560 allows a user 104 to examine and track theincident progress of particular incidents of interest to that user 104.By examining open incident tickets or completed incident tickets, a user104 with a similar or the same issue may reduce the work load onhimself/herself, or others involved with a particular incident. If thesame or similar problem has occurred in the past the resolution of thatincident may help solve the present incident. The detail report 560 andthe incident tickets provide a detailed outline of the process, people,and fixes involved with each of the production incidents. Furthermore, auser 104 can also utilize the detail report 560 to identify the statusof an incident and determine the next step in the process of resolvingthe incident because the detail report 560 lists the last person to workon the incident, and the last time the incident ticket was viewed.

The playbook 100 tab is illustrated in FIG. 8. The playbook 100 databasegives a user access to incident recovery guides 150. The incidentrecovery guides 150 include information on how an incident can beresolved and the steps taken for the resolution of the incidents. Aplaybook search section 170 is provided, in which the user 104 selectsthe channel and application for which he/she needs the incident recoveryguide 150. Alternatively, the user 104 may search for the incidentrecovery guide 150 using the playbook search section 170. In someembodiments the playbook search section 170 may be a specific pagedisplaying all of the incident recovery guides 150 for an application,sub-channel, or channel selected by the user 104.

An incident recovery guide 150 is a step-by-step process for identifyingthe root causes of an incident and fixing the problem. The incidentrecovery guides 150 include information about how an incident can beresolved and the steps taken for the resolution. An exemplary incidentrecovery guide 150 is illustrated in FIG. 8. The incident recovery guide150 has an overview section 151 that lists the symptom/incident 152, thepossible causes 153, the possible effected channels 154, the remediationleader 155, the initial triage paging groups 156, and any associatednotes for the incident recovery guide 150. The symptom/incident 152lists the error that produced the incident, such as for example, if anonline banking monitor was showing a login failure, or the incidentitself. The possible causes 153 of the symptom/incident 152 indicate thecommon causes that have produced the error in the past or that couldproduce the error. The possible affected channels 154 indicate to theuser 104 the different channels, or sub-channels that the error mayaffect. The remediation leader 155, lists the MOD and the infrastructuredomain generalist (“IDG”). The MOD provides senior level accountabilityover the production support environments, while the IDG partners withthe MOD on critical events to focus on service restoral and followsestablished root cause analysis. The initial triage paging groups 156 isa list of the groups that may need to be included in the incidentrecovery process in order to resolve the incident. A notes section 156is also included giving the person who drafted the incident recoveryguide 150 a place to list any comments or special instructions.

The incident recovery guide 150 also has an incident recovery guidedisplay section 160. This section lists all of the process steps 162 foreach incident recovery guide 150. The process steps 162 include linksand notes 164 that further define the incident recovery guide 150process and provide cross-linked references to other areas and datawithin the knowledge management application 125. The links and notes 164can take the user 104 to other tabs within the knowledge managementapplication 125. Therefore, during specific steps in the recoveryprocess a user 104 can click on a link to a “process map” and the useris taken to the corresponding process map in the maps 300 section.Additionally, the user 104 may have a problem with one of the steps andmay need to discuss it with the appropriate contact. The user 104 mayselect the “contact” link and be taken to the proper contact list in thecontacts 700 tab, which outlines who is the appropriate contact for thatthat particular step. Furthermore, the incident recovery guide 150 islinked to specific incident tickets in the knowledgebase 200 tab,discussed later, that have been resolved using that particular incidentrecovery guide 150. The user 104 may view the incident tickets linked inthe incident recovery guide 150 in order to identify how previousincidents were resolved using the incident recovery guide 150.

In one embodiment, the playbook 100 includes incident recovery guides150 for every production incident that occurred within the business. Ifan incident occurs that does not already have an incident recovery guide150, the team assigned to fix the incident creates an incident recoveryguide 150 and add it to the playbooks 100.

The knowledgebase 200 is the second tab in the knowledge managementapplication 125. As discussed below, whenever there is an incident thatneeds to be examined the ICI 800 tab can be used to fill out an incidentticket. After the incident is resolved, the completed ticket is storedin the knowledgebase 200. Therefore, associates that have problems withresolving incidents may search the knowledgebase 200 for resolutions ofsimilar incidents.

FIG. 9 illustrates one exemplary embodiment of the interface for theknowledgebase 200 tab, which includes the search section 210 and theresults section 220. In the knowledgebase search section 210, a user 104can search any of the available tickets by keyword 212, application 214,ticket number 216, and date range 218. The application 214 search findsand displays any tickets related to a specific application used inproduction support. The results section 220 lists each incident found inthe search and lists the ticket number 222, start date 224, end date226, issue description 228, cause of the incident 230, and resolution232.

Users 104 of the knowledge management application 125 researchingparticular incidents may search for related incidents and findresolutions to the related incidents before the users 104 have toescalate the incidents to other associates for resolution. This preventsother associates at the bank from having to put aside their everydayworkload to troubleshoot incidents that they have already taken care ofin the past. The users 104 can utilize the knowledge of other associatesto troubleshoot the incident on their own without having to contractthose specific associates.

The users 104 of the knowledge management application 125 click on theselectable incident ticket number 222 link to open up the full incidentreport outlining the history of the incident ticket. The contents of theincident ticket is described below when describing the ICI 800 tab.Links within the incident ticket allow the users 104 to be sent directlyto other tabs throughout the knowledge management application 125, suchas the playbook 100 tab. For example, as described later in greaterdetail with regard to the ICI 800 tab, the users 104 examining thehistory of an incident ticket may select the incident recovery guides150 related to the particular incidents being viewed and are taken tothe associated incident recovery guide 150 in the playbook 100 tab.Different versions of the incident ticket may be stored in order toallow the users 104 to see how incident reports were amended over time.As described later in greater detail with regard to the ICI 800 tab, theusers 104 have the ability to look at the changes in the ticket overtime to examine the process, failures, and successes in resolving theincidents.

FIG. 10 illustrates the maps 300 tab, which includes the three primarytypes of process maps that are used for troubleshooting incidents: thephysical 310, the logical 320, and the transactional 330 process maps. Auser 104 can select (click-on) any of the names of the maps 300 in FIG.10 to access that particular map 300. The user 104 may also search themaps 300 through a keyword search function 340. In other embodiments ofthe invention, the left side of the interface for the maps 300 lists theavailable process maps of each channel and sub-channel. When the processmap name is selected on the left side, the process map is displayed in awindow on the right side of the maps 300 interface. In one embodiment,all of the procedures and systems in the process maps are cross-linkedto other process maps and directly accessible through the other tabsections in the knowledge management application 125.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a physical process map from the maps300 tab. In one embodiment of the invention, the maps 300 section has aroll over feature that displays more information whenever the curser isover an element in the process map. When an element in the process mapis rolled over, the objects are drilled down to a lower level providingmore information related to the element, such as additional pictures ortext explaining the element of the process map.

In one embodiment when an icon in a particular map is clicked on orscrolled over, a pop-up window 350 appears on the interface display. Thewindow 350 has tabs and lists associated attributes of the element. Thetabs relate to different aspects of the icon and the attributes listinformation for each of the tabs. In some embodiments, each tab may havea search function, a hierarchy drilldown tree, and/or lists ofinformation for organizational purposes. The attributes in each tabrelate to information, including but not limited to, documentation,performance metrics, links to other process maps, data in the knowledgemanagement application 125, as well as system requirements for theelements in the process map with which the window 350 is associated. Thenavigation icons 360 at the top of the page of each map are used, in oneembodiment, for linking to other areas of the knowledge managementsystem 1 and for creating and editing the data located in the pop-upwindow 350.

The physical maps 310 display the hardware and physical details about asystem. They include the hardware components, location of thecomponents, databases, servers, etc. of the system being investigated.The physical maps 310 capture information related to the box (or thephysical hardware in the bank), transport protocol (standardized formatfor delivering audio & video data over the internet), network devices,databases, service providers, location of the box, IP Address, capacityon demand for the system, server role identification (such as primary,failover, active vs. inactive status), box owner (organization that isresponsible for physical hardware), object orchestration services(“OOS”) (used for tying different types of hardware together), andinteraction information with other systems, applications, and/orelements.

The information for a specific element in the physical map 310 can beaccessed by scrolling over or clicking on an icon in the map. Forexample, when a server is included in a process map a user may click onor scroll over the server icon and a window 350 pops up showing a numberof tabs and the attributes for the server listed below the tabs. In someembodiments, the physical maps 310 can have tabs with information,including but not limited to monitoring summary documents (“MSDs”),change records, server information, and performance & capacityinformation.

The tabs for the MSD information provide links to documents and datathroughout the knowledge management application 125, such as, but notlimited to the incidents in the knowledgebase 200 that are associatedwith that particular server. The server may also contain links tospecific incident recovery guides 150, which are used in fixes ofincidents associated with the server. Links to the dashboard 500 mayalso be included in the MSD tab. The user can quickly evaluate how theserver is performing using the dashboard 500 to view the open incidentsassociated with that server or application.

The tabs for change record information provide a list of all the changesmade to the server, such as, changes in the host name, as well as theservice provided to the server over a specified time period.

The tabs for server information can include operating systeminformation, service level agreement data, as well as other systeminformation for the server, such as an application inventory tool(“AIT”), which is used to track inventory related to applications, hostname, box owner, box availability time, and IP address. These tabs mayalso include links to contacts responsible for maintaining the server,and by clicking the link the user 104 is taken to the contacts 700 tabsee the contact information for the contacts.

The tabs for the performance & capacity information illustrate real timeperformance metrics indicating how well the server is working and thecapacity indicating how much more information the server can control andstore, such as the outage time of the server and any up or down time.

The logical maps 320 display all the interacting applications, theapplication structures and interfaces, and the linkage between them. Thelogical maps 320 capture the application information without anyhardware details, including front end applications, helper applications,web servers information, including, simple object access protocol(“SOAP”) (a protocol specification or exchange structure information inthe implementation of web services in computer networks), web logic, websphere (sets-up, operates, and integrates electronic businessapplications across multiple computing platforms), middleware tools, webmethods, and online support systems (“OSS”) interaction.

In one embodiment, the logical maps 320 interface is set up in much thesame way as the physical maps 310 interface. A user 104 viewsinformation about a particular application or part of an application byscrolling over the icon or selecting the icon. A window pops up on thescreen showing a number of tabs with attributes of the tab listed below.The tab sections can have some of the same tabs of the physical maps 310and/or different tabs. The tabs can include information for changecontrol, tools, and process map review information. The change controlinformation lists all the change records, such as updates to theapplication, for a particular application over a specified time period.The tools information captures tools, such as the monitoring tool, logfile, routing tool, and any other kind of tool launched from theapplication. The map review information shows whether a map was flaggedas reviewed, when it was done, who has reviewed it, and when it wascreated. In some embodiments the tabs provide a facility for searchfunctionality allowing the user 104 to search for information in theknowledge management application 125 related to a particularapplication, system, or transaction depending on what process maps arebeing reviewed.

The transactional map 330 shows how a particular transaction is flowinginto and out of the applications and systems. This process map capturesend-to-end transaction flow communicating or interacting with differentinterfaces, including both applications and hardware. The transactionalmap 330 captures information, such as, interaction flow betweendifferent applications, input and output from each application, processsystem flow, business function, sequencing different business functions,and impacts on transactions to other processes. A user 104 viewsinformation about a particular transactional map 330 by scrolling overan icon or selecting an icon in the map. A window pops up on the screenshowing a number of tabs with attributes of the tab listed below. Thetab sections for the transactional maps 330 can have some of the sametabs of the physical maps 310 and logical maps 320, and/or differenttabs.

In general, the process maps further include support team informationindicating who is responsible for maintaining the process maps. In oneembodiment the user 104 is able to point-out the changes required in theprocess map to the support team, who receives notification for therequested change from the user 104 through the maps 300 interface.

In one embodiment the flow 400 tab provides flow charts 402 from acustomer interface perspective, as illustrated in FIG. 12. It isunderstood that in other embodiments the flow 400 tab can provide chartsfrom the bank or business perspective. The flow charts 402 provide ahigh level overview of the applications that the customer interfaceswith throughout the bank. A user 104 can also drill down to lower levelflow charts 402 that provide more detail related to the customerinterface applications and systems or view other flow charts 402 forother applications and systems, by searching in the search field 404,using the drop-down menu 406, or in some cases selecting icons withinthe flow charts 402.

There can be multiple flow charts 402 per channel and sub-channel withinthe bank. The flow charts 402 are cross-linked with other customer flowcharts 402 and the physical 310, logical 320, and transactional 330process maps, as well as with other sections within the tabs of theknowledge management application 125, as described for the maps 300section. As described in regard to the process maps, the user 104scrolls over or select an icon in the flow charts 402 to receive moreinformation about that element in the flow chart 402. Again, theinformation is displayed in a pop-up window with tabs and attributeswithin each tab.

Elements and information related to each of the process maps and theflow charts 402 can be updated in the knowledge management application125. Changes made to the elements and information in the process mapsand flow charts 402 automatically update any other process maps and flowcharts 402 or other information that is cross-linked to the elements andinformation changed. For example, an upgrade to a server may beimplemented at the bank. A user 104 updates the information related tothe server in one of the process maps in order to display the new servercapacity information. As a result, if the server appears in any otherprocess map, the information related to that server is automaticallyupdated to include the new capacity information.

The ORI 600 tab is a multi-level corporate performance scoreboard. Itallows a user to drill down to channel, sub-channel, application,category, and predictability factor level views to evaluate thereliability and stability of the applications as they relate to eachcategory, sub-channel, and channel. Each predictability factor,category, application, sub-channel, and channel is assigned a weightedaverage related to how important each is in scoring the reliability ofthe level above. Therefore, the scores from the predictability factorlevel can be rolled-up into a score for each of the category,application, sub-channel, and channel levels.

FIG. 13A illustrates an ORI process flow 1600 used by the knowledgemanagement system 1 to track and display the reliability of theapplications, sub-channels, and channels. As illustrated by block 1602,the knowledge management application 125 receives weighed values for howeach of the predictability factors affects each of the categories. Theweighed values may be assigned manually by a user 104 through the usercomputer systems 110 or they may be determined automatically based ondata gathered by the knowledge management application 125 through thebank computer systems 140. The user 104 assigning the weighted averagesmay be an application manager, MOD, or other bank employee in charge ofdetermining the how each predictability factor affects each of thecategories for specific applications within the bank.

As illustrated by block 1604 the knowledge management application alsoreceives weighted values for how each of the categories affect each ofthe applications, sub-channels, or channels, how each of theapplications affect each of the sub-channels and channels, and/or howeach of the sub-channels affects each of the channels. Again, theweighted values may be assigned manually by a user 104 through the usercomputer systems 110, or they may be determined automatically based ondata gathered by the knowledge management application 125 through thebank computer systems 140.

As illustrated by block 1606 the knowledge management application 125receives reliability data for the predictability factors for each of thebank applications 145. As illustrated by block 1608 the knowledgemanagement application 125 then transfers the reliability data into ascore for each predictability factor. For example, for thepredictability factor of “if an application has a control plan” thereliability data received is either yes or no. In some embodiments, ifthe answer is yes the knowledge management application 125 transfers theyes into a score of 100% and if the answer is no it is transferred to50%. In other embodiments, different reliability data is received andtransferred into different scores, as discussed in further detail later.Again, the reliability data and scores may be assigned manually by auser 104 through the user computer systems 110 or they may be determinedautomatically based on data gathered by the knowledge managementapplication 125 through the bank computer systems 140.

As illustrated by block 1610 the knowledge management application 125takes the scores for each predictability factor in each category andcalculates a category score, an application score, a sub-channel score,and a channel score based on the weighted values of the predictabilityfactors, categories, applications, and sub-channels within each channel.

FIG. 13 b illustrates one embodiment of the ORI 600 home page. FIG. 13 billustrates the top level ORI score for each major channel 602; thee-commerce channel 2, the BCT channel 3, the DCC channel 7, the cardchannel 6, the MHEIT channel 5, and the ATM channel 4. Each channel 602has an icon 601, and the icons 601 list the channel score 603 for eachchannel 602. A user 104 can view the ORI 600 scores for each of thesub-channels 604 within the channels 602 by clicking on one of thechannel icons 601. In other embodiments, the user 104 can view the ORI600 score for each of the sub-channels 604 by clicking on the channelname, or using the search function 640, or drop-down menu 642.

FIG. 14 a illustrates part of the ORI 600 for the e-commerce channel 2.The ORI 600 for each channel 602 includes the all of the sub-channels604 within a channel 602, each application 606 that impacts thesub-channels 604, and the categories 608 that score the impact of eachapplication 606. Not shown are the predictability factors 610 for eachcategory 608, which are discussed in detail below. A drill-down button605 is used to drill-down in the index from the sub-channel 604 level,to the impacting application 606 level, to the category 608 level, anddown to the predictability factor 610 level. The scores are calculatedbased on the predictability factor score 612 and the weighted averagesare then used to calculate a category score 614, an impactingapplication score 616, a sub-channel score 618, and finally the channelscore 603.

The scores are calculated for each application 606 by using an ORIscore-sheet 620, as illustrated in FIGS. 14 b through 14 e. Thescore-sheet has a category column 622, a FCI predictability factorcolumn 624, an answer column 626, a sub-category weighting column 628, asource column 630, a format column 632, a scale column 634, and achannel category weighting column 636.

The categories 608 in the category column 622 cover a range ofmanagement areas in production support. They are the major managementcategories 608 that are addressed with any application 606 that is usedin production support. Each application 606 is scored in the knowledgemanagement application 125 on the basis of each of the categories 608.The categories 608 for the ORI 600 were determined based on an analysisof the where, when, and how the FCIs occurred throughout the productionsupport process. In one embodiment, the most important categories 608were identified as change management 611, availability management 612,service continuity management 613, knowledge transfer management 614,infrastructure and risk management 615, capacity management 616, servicelevel management 617, and systems management 618. However, it isunderstood that, in other embodiments, the criteria may be split intoany number of different categories 608.

Each of the categories 608 have a number of associated predictabilityfactors 610 illustrated in the predictability factor column 624. Thepredictability factors 610 are questions, data values, metrics, or otherfactors which relate to how FCIs occur within the bank for eachparticular category 608. Within each category 608, the predictabilityfactors 610 are weighted as to how much each predictability factor 610contributes to causing FCIs that occur within the category 608 for theapplications 606, as illustrated in column 628. The weighted percentagesare based on historical data analysis of the predictability factors 610causing FCIs in the past. The total percentages of the predictabilityfactors 610 within each category 608 add up to one-hundred percent(100%).

As illustrated in FIG. 14 b, the change management 611 category's FCIpredictability factors 610 may include:

-   -   Are the procedures for initiating, approving, verifying and        scheduling changes always adhered to?    -   Is there a clear distinction between a change request (e.g.        upgrade application, change router configuration, update        firewall policies, etc) and a service request (e.g. resetting a        password)?    -   Are there regular reviews (i.e. at least quarterly) on        performance of changes implemented against documented key        performance indicators (“KPIs”) for this application?    -   Are multiple related changes grouped and then properly scheduled        and communicated to minimize the impact to the business users        including last minute schedule changes (e.g. unforseen delays        during implementation)?

As illustrated in FIG. 14 b, the availability management 612 category'sFCI predictability factors 610 may include:

-   -   Are there any single points of failure (“SPOF”) (If not known,        please answer yes)?        -   If yes, criticality to environment of SPOF?    -   Are availability impact information (including the detail of the        impact of proposed changes) communicated to the change        management process area?    -   Is there a regular (e.g. at least every 6-months) review of        current infrastructure against required availability        -   with a view to identify SPOF?        -   with a view to optimizing equipment (lowering cost)?    -   Do you have procedures for monitoring, analyzing, and        forecasting service availability?    -   Are there audit procedures in place to validate the ongoing        accuracy and appropriateness of the monitoring and forecasting        procedures?    -   Do you have defined targets for the availability, reliability        and maintainability of IT infrastructure components (including        3rd party vendors) relied upon by the application?    -   Do you carry out monitoring and trend analysis of the        availability, reliability and maintainability of IT        infrastructure components (including 3rd party vendors) to help        identify potential future bottlenecks?

As illustrated in FIG. 14 c, the service continuity management 613category's FCI predictability factors 610 may include:

-   -   Is the business continuity plan in standard format?        -   What is the date of the last test?    -   Have all outstanding issues identified as a result of testing        been resolved or is an approved business continuity remediation        plan in place?    -   Is there a documented and known recovery plan in place for each        service area, in the event of an unforeseen issue?    -   Are there regular backups of critical data taken and stored        securely?    -   Are critical backups of information tested on a regular basis?    -   Is testing performed for quality attributes such as reliability,        usability, and maintainability?

As illustrated in FIG. 14 c, the knowledge transfer management 614category's FCI predictability factors 610 may include:

-   -   Has handover/takeover meeting conducted with initial team?    -   Has necessary documentation been completed?    -   Rate the quality of on-boarding new resources (bank and        strategic partner)    -   Rate the quality of training documentation and schedules    -   Are workarounds documented/new changes tested with workarounds        in place?

As illustrated in FIG. 14 d, the infrastructure and risk management 615category's FCI predictability factors 610 may include:

-   -   Does the application use any non-permitted (“NP”) technologies?        (consider software level: non permitted score by enterprise        technology and delivery (“ET&D”) (can be more than 1 per        application))        -   If yes, how many instances of NP technology exist?        -   Does application have remediation plan for any non-permitted            technologies?    -   Does application have a control plan?        -   Was the control plan updated within past calendar year?    -   Does the business impact analysis exist?

As illustrated in FIG. 14 d, the capacity management 616 category's FCIpredictability factors 610 may include:

-   -   On average how close are current processing volumes to the        volume ceiling of the application?    -   Are there any known initiatives that will increase rate of        growth? (Initiative, Sales campaigns, etc.)    -   Are threshold alarms in place for individual services that alert        staff about approaching maximum capacity limits?    -   Are key components (resources) monitored for capacity load?        (e.g. Hard disk, memory, CPU, etc.).    -   Is capacity data constantly analyzed to help in resolution of        incidents and problems?    -   Are changes to the capacity of the application handled through a        formal change management process?

As illustrated in FIG. 14 e, the service level management 617 category'sFCI predictability factors 610 may include:

-   -   Do service level agreements (“SLA”) exist between LOB and        consumer and small business bank technology and operations?    -   Is risk rating assigned by LOB?    -   Does the current application design support the LOB risk        rating/SLA?    -   Are agreements with vendors documented and reflected in the        SLA's?    -   Does the SLA structure include features such as reliability,        security, service hours, support, response times, turnaround        times, performance criteria?    -   Are there mechanisms in place to monitor and measure all items        in existing SLAs?    -   Do SLAs have clearly identified key targets for service hours,        availability, reliability, support, response times and change        handling?

As illustrated in FIG. 14 e, the system management 618 category's FCIpredictability factors 610 may include:

-   -   Are tools and processes in place to automate or quickly react to        customer/agent impacting events to provide operational relief?    -   Are component based technology monitoring tools available? (e.g.        Introscope, PerfMon, NetScout, SiteScope, Mqueue Command Center,        etc.)    -   Is the operating system (on which the application components are        installed) monitored on server and client machines? (Paging,        File I/O, Network I/O, Local Disk I/O, Remote Disk I/O)    -   Are application performance trends monitored and projected        forward to indicate when thresholds will break and projected        breaks that are alerted with sufficient time to alter the        application/system to avoid service breaks from happening?    -   Are component/Application interfaces monitored (All Component        Boundaries, Framework Interfaces)    -   Are customer experience monitoring tools available? (e.g. Topaz,        Online Banking Monitor, Compuware Vantage Agentless Monitoring        (Measure transaction response time, transaction volume))

Each of the predictability factors 610 listed above are assigned aparticular weight in the sub-category weighting column 628 associatedwith how each predictability factor 610 contributes to producing FCIs.The scores of each predictability factor 610 may be manually entered bythe source listed in column 630, other employees, or a user 104 incharge of reviewing the scoring. Alternatively, the scores may beautomatically populated by receiving information from other applicationsin the knowledge management system 1 or the bank computer systems 140.As illustrated by the format column 632 and scale column 634, the scoresmay be based on a “yes” or “no” response, a scale, a count value,percentages, a number range, pass or fail, a high, medium, and lowresponse, or some other similar rating system. Items with multiplerating values, such as a scale, may have associated text that definesthe best practices for scoring the predictability factor 610. In someembodiments, the score-sheet 620 may have note fields allowing users 104to populate why a particular score was given for a particularpredictability factor 610, in order to justify the rating. The text andnotes fields help to create uniformity in the scoring across thechannels.

Depending on the answer to the predictability factors 610, in oneembodiment, the predictability factors receive a score in the answercolumn 626 of zero (0) to one-hundred (100) percent. The score of aparticular category 608 for an application 606 is based on the sum ofthe scores for each of the predictability factors 610 in that categorymultiplied by the factor weight listed in the sub-category weightingcolumn 628.

In some embodiments of the invention, other scores are used along withthe predictability factors 610 for each category when determining theapplication score and before the application score is used to calculatethe sub-channel and channel scores. For example, in some embodiments anapplication risks and control assessment tool (“ARCAT”) is utilized todetermine an ARCAT risk score and an ARCAT control score. The ARCAT riskscore is related to inherent application risks. The ARCAT risk score isdetermined by taking into account the risks related to the application,such as business impact analysis, downstream applications, upstreamapplications, transaction rate, data volume, recovery time requirements,related hardware and software, and privacy data. The ARCAT control scoreis a measure of the control an application has over various othersystems or applications. The ARCAT control score is calculated based onhow the application is related to business continuity, technologyarchitecture, platform or environment, production stability, regulatorycompliance, business process, and information security. The ORI scorefor each application may be reduced to a percentage of the total score,and the ARCAT risk score and ARCAT control score may be added to thefinal ORI score. For example the ORI score for a particular applicationin one embodiment may be multiplied by eighty percent (80%). Theresulting score may be added to the ARCAT risk score, measured on a zero(0) to ten (10) basis, and the ARCAT control score, measured on a zero(0) to ten (10) basis. The final score is still out of 100%, but nowincludes the additional factors of the ARCAT risk score and ARCATcontrol score.

Furthermore, as illustrated in the category weighting column 636 eachchannel, and in some cases each sub-channel, is assigned a categoryweight related to how the category 608 for each application affects theoccurrence of FCIs in each channel and sub-channel in relation to theother categories 608 within the application. For example, as illustratedin FIG. 14 b, the change management weight for the e-commerce channel 2is twenty-five percent (25%), while the weight for the BCT channel 3 istwenty percent (20%), etc. Also, for the availability managementcategory, the category weight for e-commerce is fifteen percent (15%),while the weight for the BCT channel is twenty percent (20%). The sum ofeach weighted average for each category in one channel equals a total ofone-hundred percent (100%). Therefore, category scores 614 for eachapplication are multiplied by the weighted average for each sub-channeland channel and then summed, so each application has a score as to howit impacts each sub-channel and channel.

Therefore, as previously discussed, the category score 614 is a weightedaverage of the predictability factor scores 610 listed in answer column626. The application score 616 for a sub-channel or channel is aweighted average of the category scores 614 for that application foreach sub-channel or channel. In other embodiments, the sub-channel score618 may be a weighted average of the application scores 616 for thatsub-channel. Finally, the channel scores 603 can be a weighted averageof the sub-channel scores 618 or the application scores 616 for thatchannel.

The score-sheets 620 for each application can be updated in real-time,during periodic intervals, or on an as needed basis to examine theconfidence scores of the channels, sub-channels, and applications. Insome embodiments, the scores for a particular application or categoryare e-mailed to a subject matter expert or application manager atvarious intervals, in order to remind the person tasked with populatingthat field to do so in a timely fashion. In other embodiments of theinvention, the measure time is tracked, and alarms and requests forupdates to the predictability factor 610 scores are sent to the properemployees to make sure the scoring of each application is kept up todate. Access to make changes to the predictability factors 610, theassociated scores, or the weighted averages may be restricted to onlythose who have been granted clearance.

In one embodiment, color-coded scoring is applied to each scoring levelto give a user 104 the ability to quickly identify the channels 602,sub-channels 604, applications 606, categories 608, or predictabilityfactors 610 that are acceptable, in danger of failing, or failing.Scores greater than 75% are assigned a green color code indicating thatthe associated metric has passed and is acceptable. Scores between 50%and 75% are assigned a yellow color code indicating that the associatedmetric is in danger of failing and should be monitored closely. Scoresbelow 50% are assigned a red color code indicating that the associatedmetric has failed and needs immediate analysis to determine a fix.

The contacts 700 section, as illustrated in FIG. 15, is a reference tabfor finding the necessary information for the teams, partners, points ofcontract, hierarchy levels, notification contacts, as well as othercontact references. As with other tabs throughout the knowledgemanagement application 125, in one embodiment, a user 104 can drill-downfrom the channel level, to the sub-channel level, to the applicationlevel, in order to review contact information for various employees. Theuser 104 can drill-down to the levels by selecting the names or title ofvarious employees in the different channels, sub-channels, orapplication levels. Alternatively, the user 104 may use the contactsearch feature 702 or drop-down menu 703 to find a specific contact.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example of a contact display interface 704 in thecontacts 700 tab for the online banking sub-channel of the e-commercechannel 2. The contact display interface 704 has two sections, theexecutive contacts 710 and the manager contacts 720. The executivecontacts 710 section lists the hierarchy point 712 (or the title) andthe point of contact 714 for each hierarchy point 712. In one embodimentthe hierarchy point 712 in the executive contacts 710 section lists thetechnology executive, production support executive, e-commerceproduction support executive, and the technology architecture andoperations executive.

The manager contacts 720 section in this example displays the contactsfor shared services, which includes the internal bank production supportpartners. The manager contacts 720 section lists the same information asthe executive contacts 710 section but on a lower hierarchy level. Themanager contact 720 section also has the hierarchy point 722 and thepoint of contact 724 for each hierarchy point 722. In one embodiment ofthe manager contracts 720 section, the hierarchy point 722 lists thelevel one, two, and three production support managers, the websphere,the unix, the distributed performance and capacity support managers, thedomain manager, center of excellence managers, test partners, as well asa number of other managers and the employees who work below thesemanagers.

The incident recovery guides 150, the incident tickets, or other areasof the knowledge management application 125, indicate that a specifichierarchy point 722 is contacted in order to resolve a particularincident. A link is provided to send the user 104 to the proper contacts700 tab. For example, if an incident recovery guide 150 indicates thatthe incident should be brought to the attention of the level 3production support manager for shared services, a link brings the user104 to the mangers contact 720 section illustrated in FIG. 15. The user104 can then send the incident ticket to the proper level 3 productionsupport manager listed in the point of contact 724 column.

In some embodiments a hierarchy point link may be provided so a user 104can view a hierarchy map by selecting on the hierarchy point link. Inother embodiments, the user 104 may view the phone number and email ofthe contact point by clicking on the name listed in the point of contact724 column.

The reports 750 tab, as illustrated in FIG. 16, allows the user thecapability of extracting reports from the incidents that are trackedwithin the knowledge management application 125. A user 104 can create,receive, and send a canned or custom report through the reports 750 tab.As illustrated in FIG. 16, the incident information report generator 751can be filled out to create a custom or canned report. The reports 750tab includes fields for generating reports on specific tickets byentering the title 752, the start date 754, or the end date 756 of theincident ticket. A user 104 may also populate the incident ticket number760 or problem ticket number 762 that they want a report on. Users 104can also create reports based on the severity rating level 763 one, two,or three, the status 764 of the incidents, the root cause owner 766 ofthe incidents, and the consumer and small business bank technology andoperations assignee 768, to name a few.

FIG. 17, illustrates what the custom or canned report 770 looks likeafter a request is entered in the reports 750 tab. The report containsthe information entered in the incident information report generator 751in the overview section 772 of the report 770. The causal information780 section illustrates the how the incident occurred including theorigination system 781, the causal event 782, and the failure impact783. The Impact Information 790 section lays out the impacted channel791, impacted technical executive 792, the impacted sub-channel 793, thegeographic location 794 of the impact and the number of FCIs 795, DCIs796, PHLs 797, and AMLs 798. The report 770 also lists the issue 784,the customer 785 impacted, the restoral 786 information, the cause 787,and the resolution 788 of the incident. The reports 770 are typicallygenerated for senior executive management reporting and are reviewed ona daily basis. The reports 770 can also be used for metrics collectionand analysis used for driving the strategic goals of the bank.

The ICI 800 tab, as illustrated in FIG. 19, is where the incidents aretracked from when they are first identified. FIG. 18 illustrates thenotification process to deal with an incident when it is first found.The first step in the process when a production incident occurs during aproduction process or on a production system is that an error recordwith information of the incident is sent for storage in a database, suchas the bank database 130, as illustrated by block 1810. In someembodiments a user 104 receives a notification, through e-mail or someother communication that an error has occurred. After receiving anotification or while performing proactive monitoring the user 104searches the database for a new incident, as illustrated by block 1812.After the user 104 identifies a new incident, the user 104 identifiesthe issue associated with the incident by examining the error report inthe database, as illustrated in block 1814. Once the issue with theincident is identified the user 104 searches the knowledgebase 200 forany related incidents that have resolved the same issue in the past, asillustrated in diamond 1816. If the user 104 finds that the there is infact a related incident, the user 104 drills-down into the incidentreport to see if that particular related incident is resolved, asillustrated in diamond 1818. If the incident ticket is resolved andclosed-out then the user follows the procedure outlined in theknowledgebase 200 incident ticket to resolve the current incident, asillustrated in block 1820. The user 104 may close out the issue when theincident is resolved, as illustrated in the termination block 1840.Furthermore, as previously described the user 104 can update theincident ticket found in the knowledgebase 200 with any additionalinformation found during the process of closing the current incidentreport, in order to help subsequent users facing the same or similarincident.

As illustrated by diamonds 1816 and 1818, if the user 104 cannot find arelated incident ticket or the incident is not resolved, the user 104logs a new incident ticket into the ICI 800, as illustrated by block1822. FIG. 19 illustrates the incident home page for the incidenttickets. A user 104 can enter an incident by selecting the “newincident” button 801 in the ICI 800 home page, as illustrated by block1822. After opening a new incident the user 104 is taken to the incidentticket screen 810, as illustrated in FIGS. 20 through 25. In someembodiments the knowledge management application 125 can pull data intothe new incident ticket from the data in the error report stored in thebank databases 130, such as the problem ticket number 811, severity 812,or start time 813, as well as any other information that can be found inthe error report. However, a user 104 also has the ability to edit ordelete any information in the incident ticket. Therefore, after a user104 creates a new ticket he/she can enter in or change the problemticket 811, the severity 812, the master ticket number 814 (the numberof the first error report for identifying the production incident whenit is first identified), the client impact 815, and the status 809 ofthe ticket. Furthermore, as users 104 populate the incident ticket theymay select various buttons to time stamp the incident ticket when it isreceived by them or when it reaches certain milestones in the process byselecting the start time 813, L2 awareness 816, MOD engaged 817,restored 818, and finished 819 buttons.

After the user 104 logs the new ticket into the ICI 800, the user 104reviews the paging guidelines for escalation, as illustrated by block1824. The paging guidelines tell the user 104, based on what type ofincident occurs, who needs to be informed of the incident. In oneembodiment, the paging guidelines are located in the incident recoveryguides 150 of the playbooks 100 tab. Next, the user 104 alerts the leveltwo (2) paging list for the incident, as illustrated by block 1826. Inone embodiment, the level one (1) paging list is the group of people whoare first notified of an incident. The level one (1) paging listbasically serves as the first help desk level used to troubleshoot anybasic problems. In one embodiment, the level two (2) paging list is thenext group of people that are made aware of the incidents, and areusually tasked to determine the root cause and fix the incident orprovide a work around. Finally, the level three (3) paging list is thegroup of people that are contacted when software code needs changing tofix a particular incident. After the level two (2) paging is complete,the user 104 opens a knowledge management bridgeline (or phoneline) withthe employees on the paging lists, in order to begin use the knowledgemanagement application 104 to resolve the incident, as illustrated byblock 1828.

The user 104 then begins to respond to the incident to assess theproblem as illustrated in block 1850 of the response process provided inFIG. 26. The user 104 reviews the maps 300 tab as well as the upstreamand downstream systems and customers affected through the flow charts400, as illustrated in block 1852. Furthermore, as illustrated in block1854 the user also examines the knowledgebase 200 and the incidentrecovery guides 150 in the playbooks 100 tab for processes that helpresolve the incidents, as well as existing data and history of relatedincident tickets. These tabs help the users 104 find the appropriateresources from each group, and determine the customer impact for thecurrent incident ticket.

As illustrated in block 1856, the user assigns a severity level to theincident ticket. The severity level 812 helps determine the processtaken to resolve the incident, as well as the proper individuals to makeaware of the incident. If the severity level 812 changes throughout theresolution process of the incident ticket, the user may enter in theseverity upgrades or downgrades 820, if any, over the life of theincident ticket. The history of any severity changes are recorded in theseverity upgrade or downgrade history field 821. The user 104 alsoenters a brief description 820 and problem description 821 into theincident ticket, as illustrated in FIG. 21. The brief description 822 isa title or short sentence outlining the general problem, and the problemdescription 824 is a more detailed description of the problem.

After the severity level 812 is determined the MOD makes a determinationon who the incident should be communicated to and what level to escalatethe incident ticket to, as illustrated by block 1858. Thereafter the MODescalates the incident ticket to those levels, as illustrated by block1859.

At the same time the MOD is determining the escalation, the user 104 andanyone that the MOD has already escalated the ticket to, begin the stepof analyzing and researching the issues associated with the incidentticket by using the resources contained in the knowledge managementapplication 125, as illustrated by block 1860. The user 104, and anyonenotified of the incident ticket, may fill out the fields describing theproblems, tracking the progress of the incident ticket resolution,identifying the source of the error, etc. The ICI 800 has the ability tostore the history of changes made to the incident tickets, and storeinformation for each field from previous incident tickets. Thus, theuser 104 fills in the appropriate fields in the incident ticket throughpre-stored drop down data, or if there is no associated related data theuser 104 may manually fill in the required fields. The user 104 isencouraged to utilize the pre-stored incident data because itstandardizes the language used across the channels in the incidenttickets. This allows the users 104 to better understand the issues andresolutions for the incident tickets in a timelier manner.

As the users 104 are analyzing the incident they may add information tothe incident ticket. Within the incident impact section 830, illustratedin FIG. 21, a user 104 selects the affected channels 831 and drills-downto the specific sub-channels using the sub-channel impact button 832.Within each of these channels 831 the user 104 may enter in the numberof FCIs, DCIs, AMLs, and PHLs for each channel and sub-channel. The FCIand DCI breakout 833 further illustrates how the FCIs and DCIs arebroken down within each channel and sub-channel. The user 104 also fillsin the affected application and functionality section 834, outlining ingreater detail how the incident is affecting the applications in eachchannel and sub-channel. The customer experience section 835 ispopulated with information related to how the incident is affecting thecustomer, and what impact that is having on the customer base. The user104 also indicates the geographical location 836 that the incident isimpacting, which may help to identify the root cause as a particularsystem or server. The total incident impact 837 is tallied at the end ofthe impact section 830, and lists the total FCIs, DCIs, AMLs, and PHLsfor each channel and sub-channel.

The description section 840 of the incident ticket keeps a running tabof communications between users 104 trying to resolve the ticket. A user104 enters a title and description in the CommDetails 841 section,indicating information related to resolving the incident ticket. Arunning tab of the communications 842 is kept in the description section840 and may be edited or deleted as the incident is investigated. Alsoavailable in the description section 840 is a work around 843 section,which allows a user 104 to describe how the problem can be temporalityfixed until the root cause is identified and fixed. There are alsorestoral and resolution 844, and root cause description 845 sectionsthat a user 104 populates with information for identifying and fixingthe root cause of the incident ticket.

As illustrated by diamond 1862, if the root cause is not identified atthe initial level the incident is escalated to a higher level for moreexpertise on the incident team, as illustrated by block 1864.Thereafter, the team analyzes and researches the incident ticket againuntil the root cause is identified. After the root cause is identifiedthe incident team implements a fix that addresses the root causefailure, as illustrated by block 1866. If this fix includes a requestfor change (“RFC”) form, which is used for making a system, hardware, orprocess change, then the RFC number 846 is included in the incidentticket. Furthermore, the incident duration 847 is populated indicatingthe time it took from when the user logged the incident into theknowledge management application 125 until the fix for the incidentticket was identified. A link to the RFC ticket 848, as well as the MODcontact information is also provided for follow-on inquires by the user104.

After the fix is implemented the user drafts a write up for the MODindicating how the team resolved the incident ticket, as illustrated inblock 1868. The user 104 fills out the other details section 850 and theroot cause section 860 of the incident ticket. The other details section850 has data entry areas for a problem summary 851, ticket assignment852, and permanent resolution 853. The problem summary 851 section ispopulated with information indicating how the problem occurred, what theusers did to troubleshoot the problem, and the outcome of thetroubleshooting analysis. The ticket assignment 852 section describesthe technical team responsible for the permanent resolution. Thepermanent resolution 853 section describes the final outcome of the fixfor the incident.

The other details section 850 also identifies the tools 854 used tosolve the incident. The identification of the tools utilized includes,but is not limited to, the playbook used 855, whether the user 104consulted the knowledgebase 856, and an attachment area for any files857 that were created or used to fix the incident. Also, in someembodiments links are included in the incident ticket, which take theuser 104 to the tools utilized, including but not limited to, theincident recovery guides 150 used from the playbooks 100, the incidenttickets used from the knowledgebase 200, etc.

The root cause section 860 is also populated by the user 104 after theincident fix is determined. In the root cause section 860, the user 104describes the causal/failure details 861 by answering the followingquestions: where did the failure originate 861; what event caused thefailure 866; and what issues compounded the impact of the initialfailure 870?

Under the question, where did the failure originate 861, the userpopulates the fields describing the initial point of failure 863, thesecond point of failure 864, and the final point of failure 865. Underthe question, what event caused the failure 866, the user populates thecause 867, the event 888, and the description 869 sections. Under thequestion, what issues compounded the impact of the initial failure 870,the user 104 populates the impact 871, the root cause owner 872, and theconsumer and small business bank technology and operations assignee 873.

The user 104 also fills out the action items section 880 outlining whatneeds to be done to complete the fix of the incident. Furthermore, theincident ticket also has a communication history section 890 that keepsa list and time stamps all of the new, edited, and deleted informationin the incident ticket.

The incident details are then saved in the bank databases 130, asillustrated by block 1870. Afterword it is verified that the incidenthas in fact been fixed in the system, as illustrated by block 1872.Thereafter, the user 104 can close out the issue as illustrated by block1874. The final communication regarding the incident is sent to the MODwith an incident summary, as illustrated in block 1876. When the MODapproves the report the MOD submits the incident report to theknowledgebase 200, where the incident report is stored for futuresearching and troubleshooting for related incidents.

Any user 104 that has access to and wants to edit information in aparticular ticket can pull up the ICI 800 home page as illustrated inFIG. 19. The user 104 may search for tickets within a particular daterange 802, time period 803, severity 804, or by ticket number 805. Thehome page lists all of the incident ticket numbers 806 that match thesearch criteria, as well as the associated issue description 807, andseverity 808 for each of the incident ticket numbers. The user 104 viewsincident tickets for editing by clicking on the ticket number of theincident in the incident ticket number 806 column.

The knowledge management system also has an academy 900 tab, asillustrated in FIG. 27. The academy 900 is a cross functional trainingforum for production support associates. In other embodiments theacademy 900 can be used to store and track all of the training for allof the employees at the bank or the employees in any other business. Theacademy 900 provides online training to users 104 of the knowledgemanagement application 125, including bank personnel, such as theproduction support employees and the MODs. The academy 900 providesaccess to certification programs, which contain training modules forspecific positions within the bank. In other embodiments, the modulesmay be singular modules not associated with specific certificationprograms. FIG. 27 illustrates the academy 900 home page, including tabsfor the academy home 902, view all learning 904, search learning 906,and view transcripts 908 sections. The training modules may be providedto the user 104 in a number of different formats. The modules may beslide presentations, videos, pure audio, or an interactive display, toname a few.

The academy home 902 tab includes any required certifications 912 thatare deemed necessary by the bank, LOB, department, or group in which theuser 104 works. A status indicator 914 notes if the certificate programis available to take, if it is in process, or if it has been completed.A note icon 916 is also provided to make notes related to thecertification, and a bookmark 918 is provided to take the user tospecific links associated with the certification program.

The academy home 902 tab also has a drill-down button 920 to allow theuser 104 to look at each of the specific modules and requirementsassociated with the certification program, as illustrated in FIG. 28.The drill-down of the certification lists each module that is requiredand whether or not the module is available, in progress, completed, orlocked 922 (which indicates that the user must complete other modulesbefore locked modules become available). Each module may have a numberof sections that the user 104 completes before being allow to move on tothe next section or module. Test or quizzes may also be required at theend of the modules to determine the user's 104 proficiency with thesubject matter before the user 104 is allow to proceed to other modulesor before certification for a particular program is granted. Again, astatus indicator 914 displays the status for each module.

The view all learning 904 tab allows the user to browse through all ofthe learning modules that are available at the bank and add them or anycertificate programs to the user's 104 academy home 902. The certificateprograms and modules may be organized as requirements for specific jobopenings, or jobs within a group, department, sub-channel, or channel.The user 104 can add the certification programs or modules that the user104 is required to take, along with any that are available to the user104 to improve the user's 104 general knowledge about other groups,departments, sub-channels, or channels within the bank. Furthermore,some users 104 who are in charge of a group, department, etc. may havethe ability to assign specific certification programs or modules toother users 104 that work in that group, department, etc. Thecertification program or modules may be uploaded by the boss of thegroup, department, etc. to all of the users 104 in that specific group,department, etc. as required training or areas of interest for theuser's 104 in the boss' group, department, etc.

The search learning 906 tab allows a user 104 to perform keyword, date,group, department, sub-channel, channel, etc. searching for anycertification programs or modules that the user 104 may want to take.The search results display all of the certification programs or modulesat the bank. If the user 104 is allowed access to the certificationprograms or modules, then the user 104 may add any of the programs foundin the search leaning 906 tab to the user's 104 academy home 902 tab.

The view transcript 908 tab allows a user to view the user's 104certification program or module history outlining what programs andmodules the user 104 has completed and passed. Furthermore, it lists thescores of any tests or quizzes that the user took or was required totake. The view transcript 908 tab is not only very helpful in keepingtrack of the various certification programs and modules by the user 104,but also for the manager and executives as well as audit organizations,and regulators. Manager's and executives can easily upload modules tothe academy home 902 tab of an employee, and track in the viewtranscript 908 tab what employees have completed the modules.Furthermore, audit teams do not have to spend time finding out if users104 of a bank application have been properly appraised of and trained ona particular application because they can view the transcript 908 tab tosee instantly whether all of the user's 104 have completed the requiredtraining. Additionally, if regulators want to know if the bank hasinformed the employees about changes in federal regulations, theregulators can be shown the view transcript 908 tab outlining the user's104 who have completed the associated training module.

Within the modules in the academy 900, a user 104 can navigate throughlinks to content pages looking for information elsewhere in theknowledge management application 125. The user 104 can also, add, edit,and delete notes on particular pages of each of the modules, and returnto the modules or note sections if they have questions in the future.Bookmarks for specific areas visited within the knowledge managementapplication 125 can be added or removed within the modules to helpdirect the users 104 to areas related to the modules.

In other embodiments of the invention users 104 may play games in theacademy 900 that are related to modules. The academy 900 also contains aglossary of terms so users 104 not familiar with certain terms withinthe modules are able to look them up to provide a better understandingof the module.

FIG. 29 illustrates an example of the interactive display moduleinterface 950. Icons 952 are used for global functions such as changingthe theme, time keeping, or bookmarking different modules or areaswithin the knowledge management application 125. Window buttons 954 areprovided for closing, minimizing, and resizing the display. The displaymodule interface 950 also has a main link 956 for linking with theknowledge management application 125 home page. A tool bar 958 containsicons for links within the interactive display to areas, such as but notlimited to, the home page, glossary function, resources page, help page,notes page, print function, interactive games, quizzes and test page,playbooks 100 tab, etc. A user 104 can view any of these sections byclicking on the link provided in the tool bar 958. A course exit button959 is also provided for the user 104 to exit the course during or aftera module is completed. If the interactive display module interface 950is exited during a module the user's 104 progress is saved before themodule is exited.

In one embodiment, the main content area 960 of the interactive displaymodule interface 950 has a title 962, a navigation path area 964 formoving throughout the module, and go forward 966 and go back 968features for moving back and forth throughout a module. The contentdisplay 970 shows the specific page of the module that user is workingon and the audio transcript area 972 provides text of the audio content.Finally, the character animation 980 makes it look and sound as if thecharacter is teaching the lesson and includes character animationcontrols 982 for controlling the audio and animation of the character.

FIG. 30 illustrates an academy process flow 1900 used by the knowledgemanagement system 1 outlining how it tracks and displays the trainingmodules and certification programs for each of the users 104 at thebank. As illustrated by block 1902, the knowledge management application125 receives training modules and certification programs, along with theassociated tests, quizzes, video files, audio files, etc. from a user104 though the user computer systems 110 or automatically through thebank computer systems 140 and stores them in the bank databases 130. Themodules and certification programs may be created and uploaded to theknowledge management application 125 by the user 104 or they can bepulled or pushed into the academy 900 by the knowledge managementapplication 125 as they are created.

As illustrated by block 1904 when a user 104 selects a training moduleor certification program through the user computer system 110, theknowledge management application 125 allows the user 104 access to thatmodule or certification program. As illustrated by block 1906, as theuser 104 completes the training modules or certification programs andthe associated tests, quizzes, etc. the knowledge management application125 receives the notification of completion from the user computersystems 110 and stores the progress in the bank databases 130.Furthermore, as illustrated in block 1908, as the user 104 completes thetraining modules or certification programs the knowledge managementapplication 125 unlocks additional training modules or certificationprograms for the user 104. As illustrated in block 1910 the knowledgemanagement application 125 also tracks and stores the results of anytests, quizzes, training modules, or certification programs in atranscript section in the bank databases 130.

The following U.S. patent applications are filed concurrently with thepresent application on Apr. 22, 2009 and are hereby incorporated byreference: U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ to Grace et al. andentitled “Performance Dashboard Monitoring for the Knowledge ManagementSystem”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ to Grace et al. andentitled “Operational Reliability Index for the Knowledge ManagementSystem”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ to Grace et al. andentitled “Incident Communication Interface for the Knowledge ManagementSystem”; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ to Grace et al. andentitled “Academy for the Knowledge Management System”.

Specific embodiments of the invention are described herein. Manymodifications and other embodiments of the invention set forth hereinwill come to mind to one skilled in the art to which the inventionpertains having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoingdescriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to beunderstood that the invention is not to be limited to the specificembodiments disclosed and that modifications and other embodiments andcombinations of embodiments are intended to be included within the scopeof the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein,they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not forpurposes of limitation.

1. A knowledge management system for use with tracking and resolvingincidents occurring in a banking system comprising: a user interface; acommunication device configured to send and receive information; amemory device configured to store information; a computer-readablemedium having computer-readable instructions embodied therein; and aprocessor operatively coupled to the user interface, the communicationdevice, the memory device, and the computer-readable medium andconfigured to execute the computer-readable instructions to: receiveinformation relating to one or more incidents from one or moredatabases; and display via the user interface at least the followinginformation related to at least one incident: current status of theincident; recovery guidelines for effecting resolution of the incident;and scoring values associated with the incident.
 2. A knowledgemanagement system for use with tracking and resolving incidentsoccurring in a business comprising: a user interface; a communicationdevice configured to send and receive information; a memory deviceconfigured to store information; a computer-readable medium havingcomputer-readable instructions embodied therein; and a processoroperatively coupled to the user interface, the communication device, thememory device, and the computer-readable medium and configured toexecute the computer-readable instructions to: receive informationrelating to one or more incidents from one or more databases; anddisplay via the user interface at least the following informationrelated to at least one incident: current status of the incident; andscoring values associated with the incident.
 3. The system of claim 2,wherein said processor is operable to execute computer-readableinstructions stored in the computer-readable medium to store and displaytracking information associated with the incident.
 4. The system ofclaim 2, wherein said processor is operable to execute computer-readableinstructions stored in the computer-readable medium to store and displayhistorical information associated with the incident.
 5. The system ofclaim 2, wherein said processor is operable to execute computer-readableinstructions stored in the computer-readable medium to store and displayrecovery guidelines associated with the incident.
 6. The system of claim2, wherein said processor is operable to execute computer-readableinstructions stored in the computer-readable medium to store and displaya process map or flowchart.
 7. The system of claim 2, wherein saidprocessor is operable to execute computer-readable instructions storedin the computer-readable medium to store and display contact informationof individuals associated with the incident.
 8. The system of claim 2,wherein said processor is operable to execute computer-readableinstructions stored in the computer-readable medium to cooperate withsaid communication device to facilitate communication between a user ofthe knowledge management system and other individuals associated withthe incident.
 9. The system of claim 2, wherein said processor isoperable to execute computer-readable instructions stored in thecomputer-readable medium to display learning modules to a user forpurposes of training.
 10. The system of claim 2, wherein said processoris operable to execute computer-readable instructions stored in thecomputer-readable medium to provide various displays with differentlevels of information detail related to the incident.
 11. The system ofclaim 2, wherein said processor is operable to execute computer-readableinstructions stored in the computer-readable medium to display adashboard displaying at least tracking and scoring for the incident. 12.The system of claim 2, wherein said processor is operable to executecomputer-readable instructions stored in the computer-readable medium toreceive and display information regarding performance of one or morechannels of business regarding resolutions of incidents relating to thechannel.
 13. The system of claim 2, wherein said processor is operableto execute computer-readable instructions stored in thecomputer-readable medium to receive and display information regardingperformance of one or more applications relating to the incident, orchannel or sub-channel of business associated with the incident.
 14. Thesystem of claim 2, wherein said processor is operable to executecomputer-readable instructions stored in the computer-readable mediumto: receive information regarding performance of one or more channels ofbusiness regarding resolutions of incidents relating to the channel;generate one or more scoring values associated with the channel'sperformance relative to the incident; and display the scoring values.15. The system of claim 2, wherein said processor is operable to executecomputer-readable instructions stored in the computer-readable medium tostore and display information associated with the incident where theincident is related to operations of a financial institution.
 16. Acomputer program product for a knowledge management system, the computerprogram product comprising at least one computer-readable medium havingcomputer-readable program code portions embodied therein, thecomputer-readable program code portions comprising: an executableportion configured for receiving, through the use of a processor,information relating to one or more incidents from one or moredatabases, wherein the processor is operatively coupled to the one ormore databases, a user interface, a communication device, a memorydevice, and the computer-readable program code; and an executableportion configured for displaying via the user interface at least thefollowing information related to at least one incident: current statusof the incident; recovery guidelines for effecting resolution of theincident; and scoring values associated with the incident.
 17. Acomputer program product for a knowledge management system, the computerprogram product comprising at least one computer-readable medium havingcomputer-readable program code portions embodied therein, thecomputer-readable program code portions comprising: an executableportion configured for receiving, through the use of a processor,information relating to one or more incidents from one or moredatabases, wherein the processor is operatively coupled to the one ormore databases, a user interface, a communication device, a memorydevice, and the computer-readable program code; and an executableportion configured for displaying via the user interface at least thefollowing information related to at least one incident: current statusof the incident; and scoring values associated with the incident. 18.The computer program product of claim 17, comprising: an executableportion configured for displaying, via the user interface, trackinginformation associated with the incident.
 19. The computer programproduct of claim 17, comprising: an executable portion configured fordisplaying, via the user interface, historical information associatedwith the incident.
 20. The computer program product of claim 17,comprising: an executable portion configured for displaying, via theuser interface, recovery guidelines associated with the incident. 21.The computer program product of claim 17, comprising: an executableportion configured for displaying, via the user interface, a process mapor flowchart.
 22. The computer program product of claim 17, comprising:an executable portion configured for displaying, via the user interface,contact information of individuals associated with the incident.
 23. Thecomputer program product of claim 17, comprising: an executable portionconfigured for facilitating, through the use of the communicationdevice, communication between a user of the knowledge management systemand other individuals associated with the incident.
 24. The computerprogram product of claim 17, comprising: an executable portionconfigured for displaying, via the user interface, learning modules to auser for purposes of training.
 25. The computer program product of claim17, comprising: an executable portion configured for providing, throughthe use of the processor, various displays with different levels ofinformation detail related to the incident.
 26. The computer programproduct of claim 17, comprising: an executable portion configured fordisplaying, via the user interface, a dashboard displaying at leasttracking and scoring for the incident.
 27. The computer program productof claim 17, comprising: an executable portion configured fordisplaying, via the user interface, information regarding performance ofone or more channels of business regarding resolutions of incidentsrelating to the channel.
 28. The computer program product of claim 17,comprising: an executable portion configured for displaying, via theuser interface, information regarding performance of one or moreapplications relating to the incident, or channel or sub-channel ofbusiness associated with the incident.
 29. The computer program productof claim 17, comprising: an executable portion configured for receiving,through the use of the processor, information regarding performance ofone or more channels of business regarding resolutions of incidentsrelating to the channel; an executable portion configured forgenerating, through the use of the processor, one or more scoring valuesassociated with the channel's performance relative to the incident; andan executable portion configured for displaying, via the user interface,the scoring values.
 30. The computer program product of claim 17,comprising: an executable portion configured for displaying, via theuser interface, information associated with the incident where theincident is related to operations of a financial institution.